No Vacation Nation: The habits of an overworked society

This post is #5 in a #17 post series about workcations. The learn more about workcations and see the full eBook, check out Workcation. Have the best life now! on Amazon. It's free to borrow, if you have a Kindle device or Amazon Prime. 

This post is short, but it’s important. It’s full of statistics to share one important takeaway with you: take advantage of your rest time! No matter how you spend your time, it’s important that you spend it pursuing activities that interest you and to use your earned time off!

In today’s era, more and more workers, particularly Americans, are failing to take their vacation days. According to a recent study by Harris Interactive, an Internet-based market research firm, 57 percent of Americans ended 2011 with unused vacation time, failing to take, on average, 11 of their allotted days off — or 70 percent of what they rightfully earned. Other national surveys have calculated that as many as 66 percent of us keep working when we could be kicking back somewhere, leaving unused a total of 459 million vacation days. That’s millions of hours that can be spent relaxing, unplugging, connecting with family and friends, or simply just enjoying life! These statistics are not the norm. It’s estimated that Americans are taking less vacation then any point in the past 4 decades forfeiting over $52+ billion in time-off benefits in 2013.

The main reasons that workers fail to take their vacation time is that they are afraid of falling behind work, want to please their boss in order to keep their job, or don’t have enough money to take a “vacation” worthy of their expectations. Additionally, most workers who do not take vacation are “defensive overworking” or too busy trying to please their company or their boss. Our culture is constantly trying to please ourselves, coworkers, and bosses that “al fresco” has been replaced with “al desco” or eating our lunch at our desk during the workday. The reasons of not taking our vacations or allocated lunch breaks are all valid, but it doesn’t force an individual to live an endless pattern of commuting, working, and commuting. There is more to life than a cubicle and chasing the corporate ladder.

To learn more about how you can enhance your life, check out Workcation. It's available to borrow for free via an Amazon Kindle.